Friday, May 05, 2006

Buddha's birthday

HK used to have a public holiday for the Queen's birthday. Post-1997, it was "replaced" by a day off on the Buddha's birthday. I first found this a bit odd but on second thought, since we retain those holidays for Easter and Christmas it is only fair to the Buddhists to have a day off for the big day of their religion. According to the lunar calendar, the Buddha's birthday is May 5th this year and here's a photo of the Buddha statue in the Temple Fair.

Beautiful photo, so much peace in it. I would love to have a buddha, a small one in the house. But I know it has to be given to you, to really bring luck, so I better wait until someone gives me a buddha statue.

Interesting that although the colors are so bright, I still get a serene feeling. What is the little bowl in the foreground?PS: I'm sorry to have missed yesterday's contest...although, the only thing missing were the shoes!

Hi all, thanks for the footprints. This Buddha statue does look very holy and serene. The small bowl in front with a small standing Buddha is for a ritual to "bathe" the Buddha with water, symbolizing new life and cleansing. Don't you think it's interesting that Christianity also have this similar concept in baptizing?

:-)

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